My first Classical guitar

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Thanks Diane. I made up this rosette cutting jig with the dremel base and other than the need for short bits, it did work great. I will look for a shorter shafted 1/8" down spiral bit just for this type of rosette.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I like that circle jig. It's a lot more elegant than mine.

[tippie53]

nice cutter. I don't use down cuts I just use a sharp bit. A down cut bit will push the chips into the work and create heat. Just use a sharp bit.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Bridge patch and fan braces are on the top. Hope to get the harmonic bars and two upper transverse braces on tonight. I am so slow!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

When I thicknessed this redwood top, it planed really nicely, easily using my older Stanley #65 block plane. It was like cutting butter with no tear out.
(thanks Ed, it is a sweet plane)

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Got the braces all glued on the top last night and did some carving (after this picture was taken). Just some light sanding to do now and I'll fit the top to the rims.
Then I'll be ready to glue the back and top on. Yah!

[mikewaz]

Looking great!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Saturday I was able to get the back and top glued onto the rims. I did this using the go-bar deck. The guitar is sitting on a work board that has a 30ft. radius in it just on the lower bout area to where the bridge will be. The rims are sitting on the top, and there is a shim under it to raise it about 2.5mm, then the neck shaft is clamped down, which hopefully will create about a 2.5mm foward tilt to the neck body joint. This is suppose to allow for a lower bridge height. The back is then glued on. When dry I took the guitar off the deck, cleaned up any glue squeeze out inside, then put glue around the rims for the top, set it in place, and put the whole thing back in the go-bar deck the same way, shim and all and using the go-bars again to clamp down on the top for gluing it.
I now have a box. The redwood top is being finicky about splintering around the edges, little pieces of the grain lifting out, so I've applied some shellac around the perimeter of the top and I'm taking the overhang down by hand with a chisel as I don't want to risk chip out using a router. I'll trim the back down flush using the router.
When I'm ready to cut binding channels I'm planning on using a gammil to score the top for the binding channel before using the router to cut the channels, again to avoid the chip out.
Soon it will be out of the mold for the rest of the build.

Kevin

[Diane Kauffmds]

It's looking really beautiful Kevin.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

All trimmed up and out of the mold.